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A highly anticipated Meet the Bloggers session
followed featuring Frank
Schilling, Sahar
Sarid, Owen
Frager, Jay
Westerdal, Michael
Gilmour and Rick
Schwartz. All of these extremely knowledgeable industry
pros has developed a wide following for their blogs and each blog
brings a unique and valuable perspective to what is happening in this
industry. No need to paraphrase what they had to say as they are all
perfectly capable of speaking for themselves and do so on a regular
basis. I can do you no greater service than hotlinking their names
above to their individual blogs so that you can visit and bookmark
their sites for yourselves.
Meet
the Bloggers panel (left to right on the dais): Frank
Schilling, Rick Schwartz, Michael Gilmour,
moderator Howard Neu, Sahar Sarid, Jay Westerdal and
Owen Frager
In making my daily rounds I stop in at each one
of these blogs to see what the authors have to say. Having people of
this caliber come forward and share their expertise (without
compensation) has made learning about and understanding this
industry a far easier proposition than it has been in the past. I
believe that has benefited everyone in the domain business. Most of
them started their blogs just this year, so if you haven't heard
about their personal sites or visited yet, do yourself a big
favor and check them out. You won't be disappointed.
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Above:
TrafficZ COO Ammar Kubba
Below: TrafficZ CEO & Founder Kevin Vo
(Vo photo courtesy of Barbara Neu) |
The morning schedule closed with a Meet
the Host session presided over by Ammar Kubba,
COO of the conference's lead sponsor, TrafficZ.com. TrafficZ
has earned a well deserved reputation for innovation in the
PPC space and nearly all other companies have followed their
lead in rolling out graphics-rich parking pages.
Kubba and company founder Kevin Vo (seen in the
photo below getting ready to take a spin in the Lamborghini
that Kubba rented for the week in South Florida)
also have fascinating personal stories that we explored in
depth in our current
Cover Story. Both men overcame long odds with
hard work and vision to make their company a success. In our
article Kubba and Vo credited their participation in past
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences for contributing greatly to the
meteoric rise of TrafficZ. They have been the lead sponsor
for all three T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences in 2007. |
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Thursday's lunch may have been the most
entertaining ever at a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference. Lunch sponsor
NameMedia saw to that by staging a special "Celebrity
Edition" of the Taken or Available game
invented by Larry Fischer and Ari Goldberger (who sold
their parking company, SmartName.com, to NameMedia). Before
the game began NameMedia Senior VP Peter Lamson delivered an
interesting fact-filled presentation on aftermarket sales -
something he knows as well as anyone as the guy who oversees
NameMedia's booming AfternicDLS sales platform.
Lamson then yielded the platform to Fischer and
Goldberger who called ten well-known industry figures forward to
compete in the Taken or Available game (that can also
be played on their DirectNavigation.com
website). It involves them calling out a domain name and the players
having to guess whether that domain has been taken or is still
available for registration. They do a great job of picking
confounding names that make that task a lot harder than you might
think.
The
Final Four in Taken or Available (holding cards
left to right): Jay Westerdal,
Rick Schwartz, Sahar Sarid and Ron Jackson. At the
podium are game emcees
Ari Goldberger and Larry Fischer
| The players for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East
"Celebrity Edition" of the game included Jay
Westerdal (defending champion from the
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East 2006 game), Rick Schwartz, Michael
Berkens, Sahar Sarid, Page Howe, Roland
Chemtob, Gerald Gorman, Howard Hoffman, Julie
Mahloch and last (and in this case certainly least) your
humble servant.
The opening group of ten was narrowed down to a final four
after an opening round of 10 "taken or available" questions. I
bested the nine other competitors in that round by hitting 8
of 10 correctly. That put me in the finals against Westerdal,
Schwartz and Sarid.
With my confidence boosted from that opening round win I
was already envisioning how the grand prize, a pair of Mont
Blanc .com cufflinks (a rare prize as they are no
longer available from the company), would look on my dress
shirt. Unfortunately that vision quickly dissipated as I got
smoked in the final round. Sarid got red
hot, answering 14 of the 15 final round questions
correctly, to edge out Schwartz and Westerdal for the title.
They were phenomenally on target as well - each hitting 13 of 15
right. I fell back to 12 of 15 which would have been enough
to win against mortal men but not when |
Mont
Blanc .Com cufflinks |
| the chips were down
against this crew. It was a lot of fun and Sahar - I hope
you enjoy those cufflinks because there is now a target
on your back. You are going down next year! (Editor's
note: In the end the other three finalists also
received cuff links for which I am grateful. I did not want
to have to beg Sarid to let me wear his on special
occasions). |
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Taken
or Available winner Sahar Sarid (holding card
above) is available ladies.
Left to right are Ari Goldberger, NameMedia's
Peter Lamson, Sarid and Larry Fischer |
After lunch the afternoon session kicked off
with a Meet the Chiefs panel discussion featuring CEOs
and Presidents from seven companies that operate in various corners
of the industry. They included Monte Cahn (Moniker.com), Ammar
Kubba (TrafficZ), Jerry Nolte (Domainer's Magazine), Tim
Schumacher (Sedo), Sigmund Solares (Parked.com), Divyank
Turakhia (Skenzo) and Dan Warner (Fabulous.com).
This was another wide ranging industry
discussion that can't be meaningfully boiled down into a paragraph
or two, but Kubba made one comment that I think all of the other
panelists would echo regarding keeping the industry moving in the
right direction. "We need to focus on sustainability.
We've had a fun ride but we need to make sure it continues, so we
are working together to help everybody. You can't just focus on
monetization, you have to make the user experience better to
keep the business growing," Kubba said.
Jerry
Nolte, Divyank Turakhia, Tim Schumacher and Ammar
Kubba
on the Meet the Chiefs panel
I tend to look at everything from a people
first perspective so one thing that stood out for me in
listening to this session was what great entrepreneurs these men
have proven to be. Monte Cahn said during this seminar that
Moniker.com was started in his bedroom. If you read our Sedo
Cover Story back in April of 2004 you know that Tim
Schumacher was one of three college buddies who started this
globally known domain conglomerate while they were still in
school.
Jerry Nolte has successfully shepherded several
Internet startups and even went offline last year to launch his
print publication Domainer's Magazine that is getting
slicker and more impressive with every issue. I've already noted
that Kubba's accomplishments put him in our current Cover Story and
they don't come any sharper than Dan Warner when it comes to
analyzing this business and finding new ways to grow it (his
company's Domain Distribution Network being a case in point).
Solares and Turakhia have likewise built powerhouses at Parked and
Skenzo respectively. It was a real treat to sit in a room with all
of these people on stage at once talking about their businesses,
their philosophies and where they see this industry headed.
Rounding
out the Chiefs' pow wow (left to right): Dan Warner, Monte
Cahn and Sig Solares
The next seminar, Meet the
Lawyers IP Discussion, featured as strong a group of domain
legal talent as you will ever see on a single stage. Those
taking part were Jeremiah Johnston (COO & General Counsel
at Sedo), Steve Sturgeon (CEO, Sturgeon Law Group),
Ari Goldberger (ESQwire.com), Paul Keating (Renova
Ltd.), Dr. John Berryhill (JohnBerryhill.com) and Phil
Corwin (Partner, Butera & Andrews and Legal Counsel
for the Internet Commerce Association).
Left
to right: Jeremiah Johnston, John Berryhill and Paul
Keating on the Lawyers panel
As you would expect just from the
roster of participants, this 90-minute session was one of the best
of the week. Moderator Howard Neu, who is also an attorney, said he
was especially concerned about overreaching by trademark
interests who are trying to have laws changed to criminalize
trademark infringement (a development that would give them a
powerful weapon for trying to bully domain owners into relinquishing
domain names they may have every right to hold). Corwin pointed out
that preventing this is why it is so important for domain owners to be
represented on Capitol Hill (a role he can only continue filling
for the ICA if that organization is supported by domain owners).
"If you are not in the game, there will be no one there to speak for
you and you will lose by default," Corwin said.
Johnston said he was troubled by
some of the ridiculous rhetoric, literally name calling, from groups
seeking to gain control of domain names they are not entitled to.
"People just don't understand trademark laws that are very
complex," Johnston said. "Whether something is
infringement depends on a lot of different factors that lay people
do not understand. It is not a black and white issue. Trying
to criminalize something on the Internet that occurs offline every
day without being given a second thought is one of the most
ridiculous things I can imagine." Johnston predicted that if
these groups continue trying to smear everyone in this
industry as a way to advance their agenda it will wind up blowing up
in their faces.
Left
to right: Steve Sturgeon, Ari Goldberger and Phil
Corwin on the Lawyers panel
The subject of domain parking returned to
center stage in the final seminar on the Thursday schedule called Parking
Under Attack. It focused on how the PPC companies are
dealing with increasing attacks from outside the industry (with some
critics questioning the legitimacy of parking pages) as well as
concerns within the industry, particularly with respect to
transparency. This panel included Divyank Turakhia (Skenzo), Donny
Simonton (Parked.com), John Lyotier (HitFarm.com), Ryan
Berryman (Oversee.net), Dan Warner (Fabulous.com), Ammar
Kubba (TrafficZ.com) and Brian Carr (NameMedia - a
company that operates three parking services).
| Berryman said that, despite some
critics, the evidence his company (which operates DomainSponsor.com)
has seen is that the domain channel is, to the contrary,
growing more attractive to both advertisers and the
giant upstream PPC providers Google and Yahoo.
He said Google and Yahoo do want to make changes to keep
advertisers and end users happy though. "I think that
presents us with an opportunity, as challenging as it may
be, to elevate the status of the industry - one that is
getting close to being a $1 billion business
according to some estimates and one that could grow to $5
billion. Because of that the market is going to hold us
to a different standard than it has in the past,"
Berryman said.
With respect to transparency, several participants,
including Kubba, said they would take steps to allay their
clients concerns about that issue, with outside
auditing one way that could be accomplished. |
Ryan
Berryman
VP, Oversee.net |
The Thursday night social calendar was
purposely left open by T.R.A.F.F.I.C. organizers so companies would
have an evening open where they could host their own private parties
without running into any conflicts with the show agenda. However,
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. did host an open Pool Party at the Westin Diplomat
from 7:30-11:30pm for those who wanted to party nearby and those who
wanted a place to go when their private dinners or parties
ended.
| As a long time member of DNForum.com,
I accepted forum owner Adam Dicker's generous
invitation to all forum members who were at the show to join
him for dinner across the |
|
DNForum.com
owner Adam Dicker (center) with forum
members Bob Connor (left) and Howard Hoffman |
street at Nikki Marina.
Dicker wound up picking up the tab for several dozen members
who were treated to a terrific four-course gourmet dinner
and an open bar, not to mention the great camaraderie. It is
always a treat to meet someone in person that you have
conversed with online for years but have never seen face to
face.
DNForum was started by a Virginia
teenager who soon sold it to Greg Ricks (who was also
at the dinner). Ricks built the site into an extremely
popular destination for domainers, prompting Dicker to make
him an offer he couldn't refuse. Adam in turn brought
improvements of his own and the forum continues to flourish
and provide a great industry resource.
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After Dicker's dinner party we
headed back over to the Westin pool party where things were
in full swing, partly due to the fun-loving trio below (left
to right); Christopher Robinette, Daniel Dryzek
and Agnieszka Jankowska.
Also
seen at poolside in the photo below, old pals Garry Chernoff
and
Frank Schilling (Garry helped Frank get into the
business) |
(Pool
party photos courtesy of Barbara Neu)
Coming
Up Next on Page 3
-
Moniker's
Multi-Million Dollar Live Domain Auction
-
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Award Winners: The Envelope Please
-
2008
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Schedule Including the First Show Down Under!
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